Vsevolod Zaderatsky

Despite his talents as a composer and pianist, his early service as a piano teacher to the tsar's heir and his enlistment in the White Army made him a target.

Despite repeated persecution by Soviet authorities, Vsevolod Zaderatsky created a diverse body of work, with his most significant contributions in piano music.

[1][2] After the October Revolution of 1917, Zaderatsky chose to enlist in the anti-Bolshevik Russian Volunteer Army under the command of Anton Denikin.

[2] From the autumn of 1936 onward, Stalin's brutal "purge waves" swept across the Soviet Union, leaving no sector untouched—including the cultural scene.

[5] Zaderatsky's works, that were composed during the first half of the 20th century, reflected the dominant artistic movements of the time.

His style ranged from experimental and modernist approaches to rigorously structured composition, as well as pieces reminiscent of the Romantic era.

In the early thirties, while in Moscow, he wrote the opera "Blood and Coal" (not preserved), the symphony "Fundament", the cycles of piano miniatures "Microbes of Lyricism" (1928), "Miniature Notebook" (1929), "Porcelain Cups" (1932), Lyrical Symphony (1932), the vocal cycle for bass "Grotesque of Ilya Selvinsky" (1931).

[citation needed] However, his most notable contributions are in piano music, which includes five sonatas, a suite, and the cycle "24 Preludes and Fugues" in all keys, composed while imprisoned in a labor camp between 1937 and 1938.

[9] He is recognized as a pioneer of the Russian musical avant-garde, having, in many ways, anticipated the stylistic innovations later explored by Paul Hindemith and Dmitri Shostakovich.

[9] His works are performed by renowned musicians in prestigious concert halls and competitions worldwide, including in Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and Russia.